Greater Ontario Hockey League eyes expansion

The Greater Ontario Hockey League wants to add another team and, as CTV’s Colton Wiens reports, the pitch is already getting a lot of interest.

The Greater Ontario Hockey League is looking to expand by adding another club to its 23 team roster.

“Where that team will be is still yet to be determined, of course, but we’re collecting applications now as we speak,” Craig Spada, Commissioner of the Greater Ontario Hockey League (GOHL), said.

The GOHL has the Ontario Hockey Federation’s approval to add two teams to the league, but, for the moment, they are focused on adding one new club to balance out the Eastern and Western Conferences at twelves teams apiece.

Spada said the new team doesn’t necessarily have to be an eastern side team as the league can make adjustments to fill the need.

He said he’s received around 40 phone calls from interested parties so far, with about seven or eight serious applications brought forward already.

“I expect to be dealing with ten realistic situations,” Spada said, noting financial backing, travel requirements and the potential to attract fans are all considerations that will need to be taken into account.

“What we want is fan base,” he said. “If I look at a small town, but they’ve had a team prior, and they proved that they’ve had great fan success from surrounding areas, then that’s certainly something to consider.”

Spada said operating in cities with major junior teams, like Guelph and Kitchener, can be a challenge for finding the right rinks and fans.

“You put a thousand people, even in a major junior rink, it looks empty,” he explained. “Players want to play in front of people. Right? And as you know, when you look through our league, we were very successful in the smaller communities [with] the community backing. We need volunteers. We need people that love that team so much they can’t stand it. That’s the type of person we’d really love to have.”

The league could expand further east in Ontario, but travel costs could become an issue.

There also used to be a team in Buffalo that Spada said wasn’t very competitive, but he’s received a lot of interest from American communities.

“We have multiple interest from Buffalo, good buyers, a couple certainly from Detroit that are strong and certainly an interest from Port Huron as well,” he said. “We would have to obviously have permission from USA Hockey and then Hockey Canada, and that type of thing. But that’s something definitely I think, a couple of years down the road, we would look at,” Spada said.

The league will review the applications put forward and any business plans presented. The new team is expected to play in the league next season. Spada hopes by early next year the league will make the expansion announcement.